Last night was a full moon , which hardly is news, but last night was special as this full moon was, and will remain the brightest moon of all 2010. This has to do with sound astronomical reasons, but it is better to think of flights of fancy. It was minus 25 last night in the Ottawa Valley, and everything was still blanketed in snow. In the day the sun brought out the imperfections of the snow, but the moon is more merciful. The valleys and the forests were bathed in a eerie bright and slightly blue glow.

Apollo had a twin sister: Artemis. She was the Goddess of the Woodland and the Hunt, but what was she looking for? In Victorian times young maidens would recite a poem:

New Moon, New Moon I hail thee!
By all the virtue in thy body,
Grant me this night that I may see he,
Who my true love is to be.

But they needed a new moon, and this was the full moon. Maybe Artemis was looking for some poor soul who tonight was turning into a Werewolf. The Inuit of Greenland called the moon Annigan. He was nasty, not very nice at all, and maybe Artemis was going to set her hunting companions, the Amazons, on Annigan – that would explain why there is less of him tonight, a day after the full moon.

If you looked closely you would see the Man in the Moon. The Chinese had a name for him – Yue- Laou and he was responsible for drawing men and women together with invisible silken cords. These unbreakable cords would result in marriage, so maybe the Victorian ladies were just passing on this ancient wisdom in their poem.

Indigenous North Americans called this full winter moon the Wolf Moon. Small wonder, one can just imagine the wolves howling at this mid winter’s moon.

Wolves , love , marriage, were all being woven last night. It was stone quiet, no wolves and even the coyotes were not around. The insects and frogs of the spring were still in deep , deep, sleep and any birds that were around were nestled in their nighttime lairs. So there appeared to be no living thing around.

What was that sound? Oh, just the ice shifting on the river. It is so bright, but I wish that the shadows were not so dark. There is no such thing of course as Annigan, right? And the Werewolf is just made up …. right? What if the Amazons mistake me for Annigan. But none of this is real. Oh why, didn’t I take the beagle with me?